* Developers working on PHP, Java, .NET, and Open Source applications
* DBAs who need a free, starter database for training and deployment
* Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and hardware vendors who want a starter database to distribute free of charge
* Educational institutions and students who need a free database for their curriculum

Oracle have released free versions to developers &co. since I can remember.

They have always survived by being the best high-end solution, and adopting whatever business practices make sense in that marketplace. I have no doubt that if FOSS became important to his mainstream customers, Larry would GPL his code tomorrow.

"Klinger, do you know how many zoots were killed to make that one suit?" — BJ Hunnicutt, 4077 M*A*S*H

Yes, but you had to be a member of the OTN, patches to released versions were only made available to those with support contracts and you could NOT re-distribute the database as part of your application, this you can.

High-end punters are getting fussier. The other proprietary big names: DB2, Sybase, SQL Server and the like are all being nicer to them too. Always happens as baseline market demands stabilise (an RDBMS is an RDBMS is an R... so which is the easier one to play with, then?)

Maybe some FOSS databases are pushing things along a bit, but IMHO the fact that postrgeSQL, MYSQL, etc are OS is not really relevant.

"Klinger, do you know how many zoots were killed to make that one suit?" — BJ Hunnicutt, 4077 M*A*S*H